Adopting Our New Cat – Mochi!
Meet our new kitty, Mochi! We adopted her from the SPCA, and she is 12 weeks old. She is as spunky as can be! When we went into the adoption room the meet her, she was zooming around the room like a crazy cat, chasing the other kitten. There were about 3 other kitties in there with her but almost all of them were adopted, so she was basically the “last one” left! She actually scratched me pretty good on the finger when i went to pet her, which kind of turned me off, but i did like how peppy and energetic she was. We needed a cat like that to entertain the children.
The one thing i was afraid of was that she wouldnt want to cuddle. But the first night we had her, she slept right by my head all night. She’s a lover and keeper!
The one thing that is special about her is that she is a polydactyl and has 7 toes on each of her front paws, and 6 on the back paws. She is a good climber, but shes still learning to jump! We got her a little play structure thing and she’s practicing jumping on it.
The back story on her is that she was raised with a bunch of dogs, so i think she acts very dog-like (rough play). She was actually at a San Jose SPCA, but the adopter didn’t know she was allergic (not sure i buy that story) and returned her to this SPCA which was closer to her home.
It is a bit funny, because we actually adopted another kitty prior to this, but it was way too shy for our family, so we had to return her too.
Thanksgiving Portraits 2016
It is so wonderful to spend all our holidays with our family down the street!
Took some cute portraits of the kids on Oma’s couch.
Halloween 2016
Every year we go to the Barnyard in Carmel to take the kids trick-or-treating at the shops.
This year, we actually got a picture taken, and the kids got their faces painted! Super fun event.
After that we picked up our pumpkin from the pumpking patch, then carved it later that day.
We also took the kids to downtown Salinas trick-or-treating… man they scored lots of candy and its not even halloween yet!
On Halloween we went around our neighborhood.
Oh, forgot to mention — if you couldn’t tell — Vincent was Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, and Melanie was Princess Jasmine from Aladdin.
Vincent Learns to Ride a Bike
Vinny hasn’t been too into his “big boy bike” that he got for Christmas last year, but every now and then Pop takes him out to go riding. Today we went to “Take a Kid Mountain Biking” event at Fort Ord. He was able to ride his bike without training wheels for the first time.
That day that Melanie came out of her crib by herself
How did she do it? I was getting Vinny and myself ready for school, and was about to grab Melanie from our of her crib, when she just walks out of her room, all proud…. saying …. “I did it!” Hahaha! She somehow escaped all by herself. I asked her how she did it and she had no explanation…
Vincent’s School Work
He comes home with this dirty face everyday! Dude, wash your hands, and … don’t touch your face!
Picture 1 – top left – what he thinks about RESPECT
Picture 2 – Why did he spell his name backwards?
Picture 3 – Self portrait.
This might be a long school year….
Vinny’s First Day of Kindergarten
Vincent’s first day of school! We got him a blue backpack from L.L. Bean and a matching blue lunch box! I attempted the cool chalkboard art thingie, but it just turned out horrible. Oh well! Melanie wanted to be in on the first day of school picture, which made me remember back to when i was the youngest sibling of the pack and wanted to be in my older sister’s first day of school pictures!
Melanie wanted to be in on the first day of school picture, which made me remember back to when i was the youngest sibling of the pack and wanted to be in my older sister’s first day of school pictures!
Up until now, Vincent has been getting our help in getting dressed, and ready for the day. But since Dad has to now drop him off at school while Mom drops off Melanie at her daycare on the way to her work,… that means we all have to be heading out the door by 7:55am. Vincent also has to eat breakfast now! Waffles (no syrup on school days!) cereal, banana, yogurt/granola are the staples. Sometimes he eats all of those things in one breakfast!
We gave money to Vincent to buy lunch. Told him “put it in his pocket and don’t give it to anyone except to pay for your lunch, okay?” Haha! He came back from the first day, and still had the money! Um, did you eat lunch Vinny? I think he did… but who knows…
His Kinder only goes until 11:15, so afterwards he eats lunch and goes to extended daycare onsite.
Hawaii Vacation 2016
We took our annual vacation to visit my parents in Hawaii. We also stayed at the Disney Aulani Hotel for a few days, and had Vinny’s 5th birthday party (with a Robots Movie theme).
On the Airplane ready to go.
First stop Matsumoto’s Shave Ice.
Had fun walking around Haleiwa.
Next day we went to Sea Life Park to see the dolphins swim backwards.
Had lots of fun swimming in the pool with the lifejackets
Vinny’s 5th birthday party
A Cool sign from my uncle!
Mom and Dad Take a Day Off
To celebrate our wedding anniversary, Jeff and I took a vacation day and went to Great America without the kiddos! It was a fun day. The best ride is still the dropzone, but the “new” Goldrush roller coaster was really fast and fun too!
After the park we stopped at Jeff’s favorite philly cheesesteak place called Capriottis. Closest location is San Jose – and it just opened earlier in the year! (It’s an east coast thing)
Happy Easter 2016
Vincent woke up bright and early and discovered the Easter Bunny had come to visit him and his sister! We were still in bed and he came running to tell us! He also asked to open his Monster Truck that he called “Scooby Doo” because he had a tongue on his grill. He also opened up a Cadburry egg but i convinced him (threatened him) not to eat it yet!
Melanie had to wait till Mommy got up out of bed to join the fun.
Vincent was could not wait to open the wrapped gift that they had to share. It was a play-doh cupcake maker.
We played with it right away of course.
Melanie’s gift was a Minnie Mouse figurine. She has a bathing suit, shoes, and a bow that are removable.
They also got a lot of candies of course.
Melanie squared in on the chocolate bunny right way. Somehow she knew it was chocolate? I let them have a bit before making breakfast.
Melanie was making me laugh because she liked the stuffed bunny and was hugging it and kissing it, but two moments later i found her with the play electric screwdriver digging its eyes and ears out! LOL. Of course i laughed and so she started to come after ME with the screwdriver. Wacky kid.
After hanging for a bit and Dad waking up, we ate breakfast, played a bit, and then did our egg hunt in the backyard.
Vinny was being a little mean and saying “Hahaha, nana-nana, i got the egg!” not directly at Melanie but just boasting at his success. But you know Melanie got just as many as Vincent.
For lunch we headed over to Oma’s house (Pop-pop was out of town) where they had more Easter baskets. Oma hid them. Vinny found his first in the front living room.
Vinny had a minion coloring book, a wind-up car and some treats.
In Melanie’s basket, she had 2 Frozen coloring books.
She had so much fun coloring. She still gets confused by her color names, but she is really good at coloring. She was so engrossed she had a hard time making a decision to stop coloring when we had to decorate the eggs. She wanted to go but got mad at me for putting the pen away!
We also dyed some eggs. Vincent had a Paw Patrol kid and Melanie had a Frozen kit.
Oma had decorated some eggs with flowers and stickers.
The kids had fun playing with a ballon Vinny had bought last week for Pop-pop’s birthday.
I bought the kids Aquabots – a pretend fish toy that floats around in water. It was a really cool find and the kids loved it.
I took some portraits of the kids separately because it is pretty much impossible to get a good picture of the two of them, especially on an exciting day.
She got up on the chair all by herself, so she is looking proud!
“Don’t run in the street Melanie!” — see so mischievous
With her latest friend Pikachu.
Wearing mommy’s necklace after she insisted i take it off to give to her.
She loves flowers and thinks all of them are dandelions which you can blow. (Luckily, this one was a dandelion)
She’s trying really hard!
I convinced Vinny to take some pictures in lieu of nap time. NO BRAINER right? Haha!
He insisted on not wearing shoes outside so he didnt like his feet on the bare grass, which lead to the idea of a blanket (on the grass….) but somehow, it only made it to the concrete.
“Mommy, pretend you are the Easter bunny and i am sleeping!”
This kid moves so fast i can never get a crisp/clear photo!
